And spent the night in the shelter with a group of Girl Scouts. I remember this so well because when we woke up on Sunday morning fog filled the entire valley below us and we felt like we were floating above the clouds. It was truly a magical hiking experience! Amazingly, I'm still backpacking although not as far and not carrying as much (LOL)!

The hike was short and pretty easy. The view from the summit wasn't what I hoped. Hawksbill is surrounded by other tall mountains so all you see around you are other peaks- no good view of the valley floor like from Stony Man. I sat near the shelter for about 15 minutes watching three Peregrine Falcons diving down the cliff face and circling back up, occasionally swooping at one another.

Nice stroll up the 1 mile trail from the Upper Hawksbill Parking Lot. The whole family made the trip and we were rewarded with spectacular views and pesky flies on the summit. It was nice to see Old Rag this time after having zero visibilty on her summit two years earlier. No wildlife sightings except for the hawks riding the thermals. I hope the Rangers returned the two lost hikers from Richmond that we dropped off at the Thornton Gap entrance back to their car at the lower White Oak Canyon lot.

Climbed it via Whiteoak Canyon Trail to the Appalachian Trail, to the Hawksbill Summit Trail. On my way up the summit trail I watched a bear frolic in the woods about 25 yards away for nearly 10 minutes. Views were limited from the top because it was so hazy and humid.

Summited with my father-in-law Chuck from the upper trailhead. Everything above 2,500 feet was socked in with a light rain. We made it to the top pretty quickly on the good trail but had no views other than of clouds. The wind on the summit was pretty rough but not too bad on the rest of the hike due to heavy tree cover.